A video of Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar expressing anger towards the mistreatment of women has gone viral across social media platforms.
What is the claim?: Users are sharing the video and linking it to the recent viral video from Manipur, which shows a mob of men parading two women on the road.
An archive of this tweet can be seen here.
(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)
This tweet had been viewed nearly 9.8 lakh times at the time of writing this article.
(Archives of more claims on social media can be seen here, here, here and here.)
But...?: The video dates back to 5 January 2017, when Kumar shared this video to express his anger after reports of several incidents of molestation came to light in Karnataka's Bengaluru.
How did we find out?: Using keywords related to Kumar's statements in the video, we looked for more details.
This led us to a report by Dainik Bhaskar published seven years ago, which mentioned similar statements by the actor, with regards to molestation cases in Bengaluru.
The article was published seven years ago.
(Source: Dainik Bhaskar/Altered by The Quint)
Taking a cue from this, we looked for the video on the actor's social media profile.
We came across a tweet shared on Akshay Kumar's account which was shared with the text, "The Bangalore incident makes me feel we r evolving backwards, from humans to animals, rather beasts coz even animals are better! Truly shameful (sic)."
Here, Kumar says that he was speaking from his directly from his heart. He narrates how he saw on the news how people in Bengaluru had acted in a inhumane manner, going on to say how some have the audacity to justify a woman's harassment.
He added that these men would not behave the same way if women retaliated harshly.
Kumar advised women everywhere to get martial arts training, so they could respond appropriately and tell people to "mind their business" if they passed unsavoury comments about their clothes.
The Quint had also shared the actor's video on 5 January 2017.
Did he comment on the recent Manipur video?: On Twitter, Kumar posted a tweet saying that he was "shaken, disgusted to see the video of violence against women in Manipur."
He added that he hoped the culprits got such harsh punishment "that no one ever thinks of doing a horrifying thing like this again."
Kumar tweeted about the recent viral video from Manipur.
(Source: Twitter/Screenshot)
2017 Bengaluru molestation cases: In the first five days of 2017, several cases of molestation were reported in Bengaluru, Karnataka.
These incidents reportedly took place on New Years Eve, and happened in the city's MG Road, Brigade Road and Church Gate areas.
One woman who faced this situation told The Quint that the crowd around her had let her molester escape.
The state's then Home Minister G Parameshwara had blamed "western" culture for the incident, saying that youngsters were copying the western manner of dressing, "which is followed by molestation and similar incidents."
Conclusion: A 2017 video of Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar expressing anger over reports of several cases on molestation in Bengaluru is being falsely linked to the recent viral video from Manipur.
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